The Theatre of Cruelty -or- The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Hate, aggression, violence, cruelty, war and destructiveness are behaviours all intimately connected and identifiable in our dreams. Erich Fromm The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness provides a background to the theories surrounding the varieties of aggression and destructiveness. Dollard's frustration-aggression theory, Berkowitz (instrumental) aggression and Freud's libido theory are some of the theories discussed. Fromm does not discuss Albert Bandura's social learning theory of aggression. I believe this theory is one of the theories which is centre stage to any theory of violence and aggression. As well, I believe that John Bolwby's Attachment, Separation and Loss, attachment theory greatly contributes and furthers our understanding of the nature and causes of hate, aggression, violence, cruelty, war and destructiveness. The question and debate whether aggression is an innate or a learned behaviour finds answers in our dreams. The International Institute has received many dreams that makes transparent the A-Z varieties of destructiveness in all its vicissitudes.

Last night I watched Dateline: In Broad Daylight about two teenagers murdered by John Albert Gardner. Gardner's face is one of thousands perhaps millions who have inhabited the planet only to cause grief to countless families and their community. In Canada, we find the faces of people like Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka who have become infamous. The communal spectacle of everyday violence is played out on dream screens every night on the planet. A decadent cultural geneology of aggression and violence exists, we can find this grotesque history played out in our dreams.

These film noir like dreams are most likely being behaviourally acted out somewhere on the planet as we speak. Dreams of war, rape, murder, genocide, suicide, domestic violence, pedophilia, and violent crime need to be made visible and audible. Disrupting the decadent dark flow of the history of dreaming is paramount if we want to restore our collective dreams to health. This Theatre of Cruelty plays out on a daily basis in the global village. From a popular music culture perspective the Scorpions Humanity (watch music video) provide the sentiment of human destructiveness. Some of these problems are addressed in the interpretations that follow in alphabetical order;

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